The Three Major Waves of Korean Immigration Explained

Korean culture has long been a part of the fabric of American culture. But what was that journey like? The three most significant waves all happened in relation to geopolitical tensions and trends in both America and Korea. Dolly Li dives deeper. Stream Free Chol Soo Lee now on KZread or the PBS App.
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Executive Producers: Sally Jo Fifer, Lois Vossen
Director/Host: Dolly Li
Producer: Tien Nguyen
Senior Creative Producer: Andrea Bloom
Creative Director and Writer: Carol Paik
Vice President, Marketing and Communications: Lisa Tawil
Director of Photography: John Haas
Editor: Dave Yim
Motion Graphics: Arielle Ray
Assistant Editor: Josaen Ronquillo
Coordinator: Kiana Taylor
Fact Checker: Yvonne McGreevy
Post-production services provided by: Flash Cuts
Additional Footage:
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Steve Kang
Korean Image Archive
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Lyndon B. Johnson Library
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A Short History of Korean American Immigration is a co-production of Plum Studios and Independent Television Service (ITVS), with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). This program was produced by Plum Studios, which is solely responsible for its content.
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Пікірлер: 57

  • @nebulan
    @nebulan Жыл бұрын

    I feel like the Phillipines war is more forgotten than Korean war. Ok, it's not a contest. It's good to learn about each

  • @aylbdrmadison1051

    @aylbdrmadison1051

    Жыл бұрын

    Not to worry. A correction is a correction, not part of a contest. If you had gloated, only then one could rightly say it was intended as a contest, not simply as a correction..

  • @john2g1

    @john2g1

    Жыл бұрын

    The Philippines War is probably the most forgotten war. Most people are never taught that the Philippines had a war of independence FROM the United States.

  • @C666O

    @C666O

    Жыл бұрын

    ​@@john2g1now you know why is forgoten same with the reason behind the cuban revolution.

  • @juanshaftpatel7488

    @juanshaftpatel7488

    Жыл бұрын

    @@john2g1 cuz they lost

  • @zacharyhansen9103

    @zacharyhansen9103

    Жыл бұрын

    That would be quite the contest though. My money on most forgotten would be the Quasi-War.

  • @PokhrajRoy.
    @PokhrajRoy. Жыл бұрын

    The irony of excluding immigrants by descendants of colonisers.

  • @aylbdrmadison1051

    @aylbdrmadison1051

    Жыл бұрын

    Yeps. It's Ultra-Hypocrisy.

  • @hunterG60k

    @hunterG60k

    Жыл бұрын

    It's the Imperial way

  • @john2g1

    @john2g1

    Жыл бұрын

    The irony of excluding immigrants from a country made up exclusively of immigrants... Well immigrants, kidnapped people, and victims of a genocidal war over centuries.

  • @juanshaftpatel7488

    @juanshaftpatel7488

    Жыл бұрын

    @@aylbdrmadison1051 so what? would you rather be a ngr?

  • @juanshaftpatel7488

    @juanshaftpatel7488

    Жыл бұрын

    @@hunterG60k go move to north korea if you dont like it

  • @Pottery4Life
    @Pottery4Life Жыл бұрын

    Thank you for sharing this information.

  • @mecahhannah
    @mecahhannah Жыл бұрын

    Awesome thanks

  • @HKim0072
    @HKim00725 ай бұрын

    Kinda missed the biggest wave which was the late '70s-00s. No idea why or how, but that seems like when the numbers exploded.

  • @jimgessner6071
    @jimgessner60717 ай бұрын

    My mom and I moved to the US, in 1968, after North Korea captured the USS Pueblo. My dad joined us after his tour in Vietnam.

  • @Jebbtube
    @Jebbtube Жыл бұрын

    I used to watch M*A*S*H a whole bunch, which is set in Korea during the war (even though it was an allegory for Vietnam). While it's a dramedy and isn't entirely accurate, it does give you an idea of the G.I.'s perspective during the conflict. Well, the doctor's at least.

  • @kimyoonmisurnamefirst7061

    @kimyoonmisurnamefirst7061

    2 ай бұрын

    With close to Zero Koreans in the show... They also cut out the whole must make Koreans appear white part of the "Doctor's" part of the show in the form of plastic surgery...

  • @SaracenCount
    @SaracenCount8 ай бұрын

    Isn't it weird that this video doesn't address what was happening in South Korea post 1953, and why did they immigrated more between 1960-1980?

  • @HKim0072

    @HKim0072

    5 ай бұрын

    1- the did list the bill LBJ signed which opened immigration. But, the bigger wave didn't until the '70s. And, then the following decades.

  • @Jay.B.2046
    @Jay.B.2046 Жыл бұрын

    👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

  • @tracyalan7201
    @tracyalan72019 күн бұрын

    The 1st phase of immigration in Hawaii is over simplified. Early Asian immigrants in Hawaii, were the Chinese. Those workers were sojourners, workers expecting to make their wealth and return home to the country. Because they were male workers, some sought female companionship and ended up marrying into Hawaiian families, which enabled them access to land, leaving the plantations. Others brought in Chinese females for marriage, establishing families, leaving the plantation. Japanese laborers were brought in, same thing occurred. Males coming, realizing it would take a long time, sought brides from the Japan, which plantations found stability & more workforce. Korean immigrants were brought in, with the same occurrence of Korean picture brides arriving later to establish the Korean community in Hawaii. Mentioning discrimination of the Koreans in Hawaii might be misleading since earlier migrations of Chinese and Japanese preceeded the Korean immigration, so the discrimination of Asians would not have been any more or less than the Chinese or Japanese in Hawaii. Also census records indicate that Chinese population of those periods indicates that both the Chinese and Korean population sizes were a small percentage of Asian and equal sized to each other, whereas the Japanese immigration was a bigger inflow of workers and families for a significant period of time was a majority of population in Hawaii. I think one area that might be overlooked is while WWII occurred with the Nisei (second generation American born Japanese) having loyalty in questioned, gained recognition of the accomplishments of the 100th & 442nd units composed of all-NISEI soldiers. The 100th was formulated from the Hawaii Territorial Guard members in Hawaii, taking all the unit and NISEI enlisted. Those non-NISEI members were dispersed to other units in the Army, including if they were American born Koreans, which I know my uncle was one of them. It was odd, because, at the outbreak of WWII, Korea was under Japanese control after 1910. Technically, with Pearl Harbor, forming of the 100th of NISEI, Korean American born weren't considered to be Japanese and weren't included in the 100th & 442nd, however, the records of members of the 442 was a Korean officer. No other Korean was in either unit or on the books, although, its odd that when the end of the war, when the veterans returned and were discharged from their service, my uncle was released by that Korean officer of the 442/100th. It is rather odd that was released from the unit officer, although he was transferred out of the 100th and not a member of the 100th/442nd. It is also known that the Syngman Rhee spent a few years in Hawaii in the pre War Years.

  • @meander112
    @meander112 Жыл бұрын

    Engagement for the engagement god!

  • @zacharyhansen9103

    @zacharyhansen9103

    Жыл бұрын

    Which god is that?

  • @Jay-jb2vr
    @Jay-jb2vr Жыл бұрын

    *Soon-Ja Du*

  • @njaneardude
    @njaneardude6 ай бұрын

    And then there's the post war American Army bases soldiers marrying Korean women wave 😂 jk, source, my dad was a soldier in Korea and married my mom, who had been a war orphan.

  • @Kennon959
    @Kennon959 Жыл бұрын

    Korea was already split once the Japanese left, the North attempted to re-unify the Korean peninsula through means of war with the end result still being a split Korea. Rather odd to leave out that caveat.

  • @ChrisFarrell

    @ChrisFarrell

    Жыл бұрын

    Also, Stalin was the main backer of North Korea - arming and training their army. China intervened in the war (with the urging of Stalin) for their own reasons, to protect their own national security, but I don’t think they had any particular affinity for the North Koreans at the time.

  • @aylbdrmadison1051

    @aylbdrmadison1051

    Жыл бұрын

    @@ChrisFarrell You're forgetting that for the U.S. this was a war fought for the capitalists against socialism: the one thing capitalists fear. The egalitarianism and democratic justice intrinsic to socialism when combined with a democratic rule (the only way socialism can exist as it's essentially democracy in the workplace), naturally counters the intrinsic greed and authoritarian nature of capitalism. _"but I don’t think they had any particular affinity for the North Koreans at the time."_ Very true. No country did, not China, not the USSR, nor the U.S. It was always all about the money and power for each of these countries. Many if not most of the wars fought in the 1-th century were capitalists trying to stop countries from gaining socialism and democracy. That's why we keep destroying countries in South and Central America. So instead of ending up with a democratic socialist nation and a unified Korea, we allowed an authoritarian "socialist" to take over the north. Strangely this is almost always what happens when the U.S. intervenes: an authoritarian takes power. The U.S. just saved capitalism in S. Korea, by helping the USSR and China (who both wanted an authoritarian too, but a "socialist" Korea) destroy North Koreans chances for democracy, by refusing to let them choose socialism and democracy. Witch frankly is the only solution that can bring about lasting peace because it focuses on all of their people, not just the wealthy. The average person really needs to understand that capitalism and socialism are *only* forms of wealth distribution. They are *not* forms of ruling a populace. Forms of rule range from democracy (rule by The People) and authoritarianism (rule by one or a few, typically the wealthy elite). Democracy is the closest such an irresponsible and immature species as humans can get to freedom. True freedom is responsible anarchy, but cannot exist without great personal responsibility from the overwhelming majority of humanity. And authoritarianism of any kind is anti-freedom.

  • @Darknamja

    @Darknamja

    Жыл бұрын

    @@ChrisFarrell Why did the PRC intervene in Korea? The PRC wanted to preserve a North Korean Communist State, but not to dominate it. Instead, the PRC wanted North Korea to serve as a buffer between Manchuria and the US-dominated South Korea.

  • @whathell6t

    @whathell6t

    Жыл бұрын

    @@aylbdrmadison1051 Do you actually have citations in MLA or APA format to back your claim?

  • @zacharyhansen9103

    @zacharyhansen9103

    Жыл бұрын

    @@aylbdrmadison1051Damn, you can talk. Thanks for breaking it into specific points. Makes it easier to digest.

  • @PaulHo
    @PaulHo Жыл бұрын

    Michelle Steel is a no though.

  • @HKim0072

    @HKim0072

    5 ай бұрын

    Older generation + old California which used to be heavily Republican.

  • @PaulHo

    @PaulHo

    5 ай бұрын

    @@HKim0072 used to?!

  • @HKim0072

    @HKim0072

    5 ай бұрын

    @@PaulHo California was a red state from 1950s until Clinton in '92 in the POTUS election (LBJ was the exception). Nixon and Reagan came out of California.

  • @PaulHo

    @PaulHo

    5 ай бұрын

    @@HKim0072 my bad, I was focused on Orange County, where Michelle Steel is.

  • @sableindian
    @sableindian Жыл бұрын

    Thank you for this information. I wonder how we can grow knowing the racism of many Korean businesses in the Black community. It was a Korean woman who shot a child in the back that started one of L. A.'s riots. The Rodney King verdict was just the last straw. Latasha Harlins (January 1, 1976 - March 16, 1991) was an African-American girl who was fatally shot at age 15 by Soon Ja Du (Korean: 두순자), a 49-year-old Korean-American convenience store owner. Du was tried and convicted of voluntary manslaughter over the killing of Harlins, based in part on security camera footage. The judge sentenced Du to 10 years in state prison but the sentence was suspended and the defendant was instead placed on five years' probation with 400 hours of community service, a $500 restitution, and funeral expenses. Now I know these business owners didn't come all the way from another country just to kill and exploit other people. They had to learn an attitude from someone. The same someone who thought it was a good idea not to send a murderer to jail. Look behind the curtain to see who is really causing hatred. I would like to see the Korean community have a day like Cinco de Mayo where ALL people are invited in the neighborhood where they have their businesses. Get to know the people who buy your products. 😢 Heal

  • @clarkkent3809

    @clarkkent3809

    Жыл бұрын

    For every sad story you have, there are dozens more of the latter. Those riots were savage, were you there? Seen the videos? How about, been to chicago lately? So before you play that card to get sympathy, remember, you live in the greatest country in the world. If you do not like it, then leave. Racism is a lie, evil is evil, but stereotypes exist for a reason.

  • @HKim0072

    @HKim0072

    5 ай бұрын

    LA Times did a really good writeup about the friction between Koreans and African-Americans (actually many articles).

  • @kristoffer3000

    @kristoffer3000

    4 ай бұрын

    @@clarkkent3809 How can the US be the greatest country in the world when it's got legal slavery, supports genocide, commits genocide, overthrows democracies, has AWFUL worker rights, mass poverty, terrible education and is a fascist dystopia

  • @marieroberts5664
    @marieroberts5664 Жыл бұрын

    To quote Max Klinger: "I married a Korean girl, a lovely girl...EVA BRAUN would get nicer looks!"

  • @1313sp
    @1313sp7 ай бұрын

    I find it weird in your presentation of pre-WW2 migration the push factor was brutal colonization by Japanese in Korea is what disenfranchised Koreans in the first place. I get you wanna paint the US as the racist bad guy, but you're not presenting history correctly by not even mentioning that. Everyone is my parents' and grandparents' generations are traumatized by Japanese colonization and that's ignorant that you don't even understand that as the bigger part of Korean history.